1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to ambulatory dolls and more particularly to mechanisms for articulating a motor driven doll for self supporting ambulatory movement in a realistic manner.
2. Background Art
Dolls with motor driven moveable legs for simulating walking are old in the art. Thus, for example, dolls or other characters with motor driven legs articulated for walking are shown in Paluck U.S. Pat. No. 1,684,287 issued Sep. 11, 1928; Ryan U.S. Pat. No. 3,243,916 issued Apr. 5, 1966; Ryan U.S. Pat. No. 3,267,607 issued Aug. 23, 1966; Ryan U.S. Pat. No. 3,267,608 issued Aug. 23, 1966; Gardel et al. U.S. Pat. No. 3,421,258 issued Jan. 14, 1969; Lindsay et al. U.S. Pat. No. 3,425,154 issued Feb. 4, 1969; Ryan U.S. Pat. No. 3,445,960 issued May 27, 1969; Robbins U.S. Pat. No. 3,484,988 issued Dec. 23, 1969; Ceccon U.S. Pat. No. 3,604,147 issued Sep. 14, 1971; Gardel et al. U.S. Pat. No. 3,609,909 issued Oct. 5, 1971; Terzian U.S. Pat. No. 4,878,874 issued Nov. 7, 1989 and copending Terzian et al. U.S. patent application Ser. No. 07/646,167 filed Jan. 25, 1991. In addition, there are prior art dolls with motor driven moveable legs articulated for other purposes, as for example, Douglas et al. U.S. Pat. No. 3,475,857 issued Nov. 4, 1969 for a doll supported in a sitting position on a moveable wheeled hobby horse transporter; Terzian et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,467,555 issued Aug. 28, 1984 for a swimming doll and Terzian et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,507,098 issued Mar. 26, 1985 for a roller skating doll.
The prior art dolls or characters disclosed in each of Paluck U.S. Pat. No. 1,684,287 and Terzian U.S. Pat. No. 4,878,874 require a wheeled supporting structure and the doll disclosed and claimed in copending Terzian et al. U.S. patent application Ser. No. 07/646,167 requires the user to support the doll by its hands and arms during the simulated walking. Considerable efforts have been expended to make a self-supporting ambulatory doll that moves in a realistic human manner and is stable during walking. Toward this purpose, the dolls disclosed in Ryan U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,267,608 and 3,445,960 use an inner leg assembly in combination with an outer leg shell to provide a parallelogram action to keep each foot of the doll parallel to the surface on which the doll is walking. In addition, to also help achieve stable, realistic walking, the prior art dolls of Ryan U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,267,608 and 3,445,960 as well as of Ceccon U.S. Pat. No. 3,604,147 provide a moveable member at the bottom of the foot. In the Ceccon patent, the lowermost surface contacting plate members, that is, the soles of the shoes, are spaced from the bottom of the feet by springs to enable the doll to advance step by step with a soft and elastic walking so that the doll looks like a walking baby. The movements of the human legs in any walking, jogging, or running action of course involve bending of the legs at the knee joints. While the doll supported upon a wheeled hobby horse in Douglas et al. U.S. Pat. No. 3,475,857, the doll supported by a wheeled frame in Paluck U.S. Pat. No. 1,684,287 and the doll supported by the child playing with it in copending Terzian et al. U.S. patent application Ser. No. 07/646,167 have hinged or pivoted knee joints, the self-supported walking dolls, do not have hinged knee joints. In addition to the movements of the legs themselves, coordinated movement of the torso, head and arms is also required in order to most realistically simulate human movement in a walking, jogging or running doll. There remains a need for a self-supporting ambulatory doll having motor driven legs which are themselves articulated for pivotal movement and which cooperate with other articulated portions of the doll to simulate walking or jogging in a realistic manner.